IT employee retention: employee expectations and workplace environments

Abstract

IT employee retention is a serious problem facing many organizations. Building on person-environment fit theory and utilizing survey data drawn from 21 state government IT departments, in this paper we examine the relationship between voluntary turnover and various aspects of the working environments which IT employees perceive to be unique to their profession (i.e., a departmental disposition toward learning and change, opportunities for cross-training, opportunities for job rotation, knowledgeable managers, knowledgeable colleagues, and work exhaustion). Work exhaustion, disposition toward learning and change, knowledgeable managers, and opportunities for cross training explained 30% of the variance in voluntary turnover intentions. Gender differences emerged.